Lent
March 14, 2016

Scripture Reading: Psalm 118:1-2

O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
   his steadfast love endures forever!  

Let Israel say,
   ‘His steadfast love endures forever.’ –Psalm 118:1-2

Pardon me if I reach back in memory to recall William Wordsworth’s poem The World is Too Much With Us but it so appropriate right now as our society seems to be in search of Pagan gods who shift shape as need be like Proteus or blow a loud horn like Triton. Read it for yourself and you might agree with me:

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;—
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not. Great God! I’d rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.

In this week leading up to Palm Sunday we reflect on Psalm 118 and take great comfort at the beginning of Holy Week in the fact that God is good and that God’s steadfast love does endure forever. We might want to pay particular attention to that word “endure” because it probably aptly states what God thinks about us at those times when we give up on God and turn to the lesser deities of the world described well in ancient Greek myth.

Prayer: Lord, be our bridge over the troubled waters we face in our world today. Make us whole so that we can be your light to the world that at times seems upside down. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized 
Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council 
of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights 
reserved.